"Having taken notice of this concession made to the States General, for seizing upon the whole ten provinces; we cannot but observe to your Majesty, that in the manner this article is framed, it is another dangerous circumstance which attends this treaty; for had such a provision been confined to the case of an apparent attack from France only, the avowed design of this treaty had been fulfilled, and your Majesty's instructions to your ambassador had been pursued: but this necessary restriction hath been omitted, and the same liberty is granted to the States, to take possession of all the Netherlands, whenever they shall think themselves attacked by any other neighbouring nation, as when they shall be in danger from France; so that if it should at any time happen (which your Commons are very unwilling to suppose) that they should quarrel, even with your Majesty, the riches, strength, and advantageous situation of these countries, may be made use of against yourself, without whose generous and powerful assistance they had never been conquered. "To return to those ill consequences which relate to the trade of your kingdoms, we beg leave to observe to your Majesty, that though this treaty revives, and renders your Majesty a party to the fourteenth and fifteenth articles of the Treaty of Munster,[19] by virtue of which, the impositions upon all goods and merchandises brought into the Spanish Low Countries by the sea, are to equal those laid on goods and merchandises imported by the Scheldt, and the canals of Sass and Swyn, and other mouths of the sea adjoining; yet no care is taken to preserve that equality upon the exportation of those goods out of the Spanish provinces, into those countries and places, which, by virtue of this treaty, are to be in the possession of the States; the consequence of which must in time be, and your Commons are informed, that in some instances it has already proved to be the case, that the impositions upon goods carried into those countries and places, by the subjects of the States General, will be taken off, while those upon the goods imported by your Majesty's subjects remain: by which means, Great Britain will entirely lose this most beneficial branch of trade, which it has in all ages been possessed of, even from the time when those countries were governed by the house of Burgundy, one of the most ancient, as well as the most useful allies to the crown of England. [Footnote 19: Concluded June 30th, 1643. See note in vol. v., p. 150, of present edition. [T.S.]]